GM Closure in Oshawa Will Be Felt Province Wide: Report

That's according to a new economic impact studyby Robin Somerville that's been done to quantify how much the closure's will change the economic landscape in Ontario and Canada.

The Director of the Centre for Spatial Economics and President of Quantitative Economic Decisions Director spoke to Patty Handysides on The Afternoon News.

Somerville says job-loss felt in Oshawa is just the beginning.

"It starts to spread-out with more jobs being lost throughout the province over 2020-2025, about 7,000 jobs lost through the province," he says. "That doubles over the next five-years after that."

Lower paying jobs will be the norm for a skilled workforce trying make ends meet, he added.

"Then you start to reach out to just about every industry from retail and whole-sale, peoples incomes are impacted," says Somerville. "Nobody is immune, but not everybody will necessary know that they're being effected."

On a provincial level, Premier Doug Ford's PC government is going to have a hard time holding the line on taxes after losing more than $1-billion in tax revenue directly and indirectly from the plant.

"If he wants to maintain his image as being fiscally responsible, we may have to look at higher taxes or deeper cuts to services, which will impact many, many, more people," added Somerville.

Thousands of Unifor members from across the province are expected to flood Windsor's riverfront for a rally directly across from GM's World Headquarters in Detroit Friday morning around 11am.